Car won’t start
 

So now some background on my ‘towing’ post earlier. Last night I was out cruising around in the Z and was also going to take some camera shots of it. It was a leisurely cruise, hardly any spirited driving at all. I came to a stop at a stop sign and when taking off again in first gear, the car acted like it was misfiring/missing. I could not hardly give it any revs as it just had no power and was not running right at all- pretty much like a cold-blooded carbureted engine at start-up. As this was happening, I was glancing around at all the gauges and dash from instinct and noticed the SES light was on as well as my voltage had dropped to 13, which is odd because I never see that move from 14. The engine started running smooth again after a few hundred feet which then I decided to pull into a parking lot. I sat there letting it idle smoothly for a minute or two and then made a quick trip down the road and was able to put it to the floor for the first couple of gears. I then came back to the parking lot and had been sitting there for a minute or two then it started running rough again (voltage was down to 12 now) so I went and popped the hood. The engine definitely seem like it was running hot (my oil temp was around 200-210, water temp normal) and there was a bit of brief smoke that came from the drivers side of the engine. Not long after looking at things under the hood, the car died under idle. At this point, the car would not start again..not even attempt to crank. I thought maybe it went into a limp mode from being too hot or low voltage. So I started checking things..fluid levels, ground connections, fuel (completely full)..all of which were fine. Car still refused to give me the slightest indication that it was trying to crank so I first tried jump staring it, but no change. I then pulled the battery to get tested the next morning. Took it into CarQuest this morning and they threw a tester on it which also applied loads..came out to be fine and 100% charged. Went to work and was searching the forum up and down for similar problems, but couldn’t find any that matched my situation. After work, I threw the battering back in and tried starting again now that the engine had cooled overnight. Still nothing. At this point I noticed that when the ignition was in the ‘lock/off’ position, the Intelligent Key System waring light was on (I know, here we go). This was likely there last night also, but I was mostly looking at the dash when the ignition was in the ‘ON' position, which had multiple lights on. Anyways, according to the owners manual, if this light is present, "the car may be impossible to start"..great. This is in fact true at this time. Ended up getting the car towed home. Now it’s my understanding that the Steering Lock issue went away on the mid-2011s? I tried searching for later model years with that issue but have found nothing.

Additional things I’ve tried: spare key fob and inserting the fob into the slot, re-check fuel, oil and ground connections

Have yet to: scan for codes, listen for fuel pump prime, look at clutch switch. Maybe start solenoid related? Fuel pump/system issue?

Things to note: I can still lock/unlock the car with the fob, dash lights up and am able to roll windows down, listen to radio, etc., the fan runs continuously when ignition is in the ‘ON’ position

Ideas and input welcome, thanks.

Check the fuse link at the pos battery terminal If you have any high amp draw problems will open and do all the things you just described It happened to me

So I got to checking all of the fuses in the Intelligent Power Distribution Module located by the battery and came across the 15A ‘ENG CNTRL’ blown. I replaced this fuse and sure enough this was the culprit to not being able to start the car. HOWEVER, the car still is running rough as I described above (could really tell from the exhaust pulses). Seems like excessive vibration or like it’s not running on all cylinders. I’m sure if I let it run long enough, something would cause this fuse to blow again and then the engine would die and would end up in the same scenerio. The interesting thing is, I was able to scan for codes now since the fuse was replaced (scanner would error before when fuse was blown) and it found none, which seems odd for how the engine is acting.

Anyone have any info on this fuse and why it would have blown? Don’t know why the engine isn’t running smoothly either without a code being thrown. May be the tank of gas (I’m 100% positive it’s 91), MAF, spark plugs, injectors?

check the 100 amp fuse link from the alternator

If your voltmeter is still reading low, then pokeyl is probably on the right track (fuse/fusible link).

Ok so I scanned for codes again and oddly enough I have one now which I though I should have with how it was idleing. P0304 - cylinder 4 misfire. Still wondering if spark plug, injector or bad gas related.

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Pull the #4 spark plug and inspect it for oil, gas, dirt, wear, &c.

Of course #4 is directly under the throttle body and strut brace. If it was easily accessible I would even swap it with another one provided enough real estate and see if the code moves to that cylinder. Could be spark plug but also coil since its coil-in-plug. Will call dealer tomorrow..can't be bothered with ripping all that apart when I still have warranty.

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So I though I had a fuel pump issues but it turns out it was a old/low battery. Before the replacement battery the car would turn over but not fire (no codes) but couldn't hear the normal fuel pump whine. The shop I dropped it off at replaced the low battery, wasn't holding a full charge, and the car now starts fine. However just like you it's running rough. It could be because of bad gas, was sitting in the tank for 2 months probably now. If they find anything besides bad gas I'll let you know.

Update:

So the dealer diagnosed it to be a bad/faulty coil on #4 like I thought. They ended up putting it to cylinder 2 or 6 on that side and the misfire code followed. Good to know I would’ve done the same if I had no warranty and was doing the work myself.

Hard to believe this happened at 10k miles. I haven’t seen anything on these coil-on-plug systems being a problem on our cars so may be a fluke/isolated incident.